Sunday, 28 August 2011

Raspberry lemonade

Spring is on the way! The sun has been shining with great promise for the last week or so. We have been spoilt with two sunny weekends in a row. Last weekend I was so optimistic. E hung the washing outside. Sylvia blew bubbles for Zinc to chase about the yard. I weeded the garden and started making lemon barley water.

Then we went to CERES cafe which was understandably busy but the service left a lot to be desired. Not its finest hour. The same might be said of the lemon barley water. I have been thinking about Lucy's recipe for some time. It has occurred to me at many times this winter while I have wondered about what to do with all the meyer lemons produced by our little tree.

The sunshine last weekend seemed right for a refreshing cool drink. My mum had told me I need to pick the lemons. I don't eat so many lemons in winter. But it seemed they wouldn't wait for summer. So I put on the barley to soak.

I rubbed the sugar in the lemon rinds. Lucy says that this is satisfying work. I agree. It left my fingers with a wonderful lemon scent. I love lemon zest more than lemon juice. It has a pleasingly intense fragrance. The juice is just too tart for my liking. So you see, I am not the biggest lemon fan. Lemons are usually (and often) a bit player in my recipes, rarely the star.

Making lemon drink was a risk. Blame the lemons. They looked so gorgeous. Our own harvest seemed too special to fritter away with a tablespoon here and there. I have enjoyed lemon barley water in the past. The very idea of it attracted me. It reminds me of sitting watching the tennis on the telly in summer with Ken Rosewell advertising barley water. When our visit to CERES was such a disappointment, I was looking forward to coming home to a nice glass of lemonade.

I love my fizzy drinks so I had decided to make it more concentrated and add soda water. We sat in the sun on the verandah and tasted it. The drink was nice but it wasn't very sweet and tasted far too much of lemon for my tastes. So I bought some frozen raspberries to add with a bit of honey. After gritting my teeth as I sieved the raspberries into the lemon mixture, I finished making my drink not mid afternoon but after dinner!

The drink still tasted quite lemony but with added sweetness and fruitiness. It hasn't been a huge hit but Sylvia and I have enjoyed a glass from time to time during the week. Sylvia had a cold last week and wasn't eating much so I figured that she could do worse than have the lemon, honey and extra energy in the drink.

This is definitely a drink for summer. Maybe if our lemon tree gives us fruit in the warmer weather I will have another go at a pink lemonade. I am not so sure about the honey, which I found had a strong flavour but I think that raspberry and lemon (or lime) is a great flavour combination. With some ice blocks and a sprig or two or mint, this would be a fine cooling drink on a hot day.

16 comments:

What an interesting recipe! I am so envious of your plentiful yield of lemons--I have never actually tasted a Meyer lemon, belieive it or not! I'm sure I'd love the combo of lemon and raspberry, though, as I am a fan of both (I even eat slices of lemon straight sometimes. . . I can see you puckering up at the thought!) ;)

It might not have been quite to your taste, but it looks lovely - the pink is very attractive!

I like lemons, but can understand people not liking them, in the same way that I dislike garlic, which everyone always assumes is universally liked. My dad doesn't like lemons either so I only started using lemons more when I left home!

I keep meaning to try lemon barley water and then keep forgetting again. Oh your very own lemon tree, I am so envious. I love lemons and would use them even more if we had a plentiful supply. If you're not to keen on the tart taste of lemons, you could try adding some to stews, curries, middle eastern food etc at the end of cooking - a tbsp or so actually gives a lovely flavour and surprisingly a slightly sweet taste rather than a sour one.

Thanks Choclette - our lemon tree is small - not huge like some around us - but it is nice to have our own lemons - I do enjoy lemon in recipes but just not too much - sylvia is feeling better but behaving badly - if only there was a drink to fix that :-)

Thanks Adam - actually I do have a drink with apple juice that I love - http://gggiraffe.blogspot.com/2008/01/wendys-apple-green-tea.html - and I did use some lemon but tried to abate the strong lemon flavour - a bit of lemon is fine - just not too much

Thanks Amanda - I think it was a bad day for CERES rather than that it has gone downhill - I am sure I will be back though maybe will be a bit more wary if it is really busy

Thanks Lucy - I wasn't overly keen - I think I would appreciate it more if it was really hot and the drink was really cold but I think my past experience of lemon barley water has not tasted so lemony - maybe it has been sweeter - so I think I was unsettled by my expectations of the drink tasting differently - didn't hate it but I think I need to experiment with lemon barley water further (in summer) to find a mix that suits me

Thanks for dropping by. I love hearing from you. Please share your thoughts and questions. Annoyingly the spammers are bombarding me so I have turned on the pesky captcha code (refresh to find an easy one if you don't like the first one)

Search this Blog

About Me

Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.